«call the Brothers from Labor to Refreshment and from Refreshment to Labor»
Q: But what does the ... ‘meal break’ or ‘refreshment’ have to do with the Work in the Temple ?
A: Dear Friend, even if I haven't known you for long, I know your acumen well enough not to believe the seriousness of your question. I rather see some irony, which I appreciate and share.
Indeed: what do meal breaks or refreshments amongst laborers have to do with Masonic Rituals?
In actual fact, nothing.
The term recreation should be read Re-creation, because in its cosmogonic aspect, the Work (of the soul) of the initiate undergoes cycles of manifestation (work) and disappearance from the physical plane (re-creation) in order to re-generate itself, and be able to start again his contribution to the Great Work ‘with strength and vigor’.
The fact that this statement must be read in the cosmogonic perspective comes from the ideal link existing between any ‘divine Worker’ and the ‘Great Architect of the Universe’, viz. the God Creator of mystics. Therefore, the Work of that Worker cannot be but universal and cyclically infinite.
On the other hand, The Great Book of Nature states that every living form undergoes the vital rhythms, cycles and times of the ‘Mother Planet’ (Mother Earth).
But if the physical aspect of every living form, including the initiate, undergoes the times and time-limits (cyclicity) of his Mater Matter (the living planet), his, so to speak, spiritual and metaphysical aspect refers to other times, of a subtler kind which, for the sake of simplicity, we might call Divine.
I think that this example is sufficient to show how initiatory literature, not only Masonic, can never be read and understood like a sport newspaper or a novel (see Initiatory Illiteracy). More wisdom would be useful before dealing properly with topics such as rituality in general and Masonic rituality in particular.
Fraternally.